The Obama Administration has applied what amounts to the Stupak amendment to the interim high-risk insurance pools created in the Affordable Care Act, banning abortion services coverage in them.

Because abortion is not openly being discussed right now in regard to Elena Kagan’s nomination, it’s tempting to assume it may never really become an issue. Don’t bet on it.

Written by Amanda Marcotte for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

While anti-choice zealots may have the necessary votes to uphold the 20-week ban regardless of John Paul Stevens’ replacement, this is why the Court matters so much. The right has used judicial appointments in a blatantly political fashion, and unless the President is willing to see basic rights stripped away, he must act boldly.

Announcements by the Lilith Tour Monday suggested that $1 from every ticket will be donated to local charities in each of the 36 cities the festival visits. Will crisis pregnancy centers and anti-choice organizations be among them?

Written by Rachel Larris for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

When we pointed out that this is in fact what the bill does, Ezra dismissed it as “helping activists kill the bill” rather than “actually informing anyone about what is in the bill.” According to Ezra, “the restriction here is not on the right to choose, but on whether primary insurance covers abortion.” Therefore, since the goal of the bill is not restricting a woman’s right to choose, the fact that it does so anyway is just a coincidence and therefore not a valid reason to object to the bill’s passage.

Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Rep. Degette, the Pro-Choice Caucus, the president. . . ?

We saw in the last days what President Obama was capable of when he truly put the force of his political skill behind an effort. But as time wore on, the mountain of data unearthed could lead to only one conclusion: this bill, with its eerie similarities to a plan written by insurance industry lobbyists in 2008, was what the president wanted.

Rather than use his talents to rein in corporate interests, as he promised on the campaign trail, the President used his office to shield them from accountability. This was our chance to weaken them, and the Americans that Obama inspired with his message of change would have fought like hell by his side to do just that. Sadly, that opportunity was squandered. President Obama made himself the defender of the corporate interest problem that we still need to overcome. Perhaps that is the best that can be achieved within our current system. If so, that is a sobering reality.

Members of the pro-choice caucus are livid after the White House released the Executive Order on abortion to the media without showing it to them.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made a deal with Rep. Bart Stupak in order to secure his vote and that of other anti-choice Democrats for the health care bill, which is scheduled to be voted on this Sunday. According to a member of Congress who was briefed on the matter, Pelosi has agreed to let Stupak have a vote on his amendment either before or after the House votes to pass the Senate bill. It instructs the Senate to substitute the language in his amendment for the Senate language on abortion.

FDL has obtained a copy of the concurrent resolution. . . .

People can choose to support the bill despite this, the biggest rollback in abortion access since Roe v. Wade, on the grounds that increases in total health care access will limit abortions, or because women’s health will improve, or whatever other reason. But don’t pretend to “study” the issue. We know exactly what the Senate bill would accomplish, taking a legitimate medical procedure and making it taboo.